Land & Development in Latin America: Issues and Openings for Policy Research

Is Latin America moving toward a new generation of pro-poor land reforms? What are the real openings and constraints with regard to such policies at the local, national, and international levels? What role is research playing, and what role might it play, in tracking efforts and revealing policy options? This book suggests that Latin America may not be poised for a radical shift in land policy and administration, and that it is home to some worrisome trends and a rich array of initiatives on land issues. Researchers have a crucial role to play in illuminating policy alternatives and monitoring outcomes. The book identifies four sets of issues on which fresh research could inform practice.

• Tracking the outcomes of market-oriented reforms such as individual land titling and land banks, especially for the poor, women, and indigenous peoples;
• Revisiting outcomes of past redistributive land reforms and tracking current innovations in countries like Brazil;
• Examining efforts to link local and national land policy initiatives in areas like titling, credit, taxation, and sustainable land use; and
• Re-examining the two-way relations between land policy and conflict by assessing, for example, the conflict impacts of key land policies.

The book also discusses how these lines of research could feed into policy debates in countries like Bolivia, Brazil, and Guatemala, as well as at the regional level and in the global sphere. It will be of interest to those working in the areas of rural development, land policy, and gender equality.

The authors

Stephen Baranyi is Principal Research on Conflict Prevention at the North–South Institute in Ottawa, Canada.

Carmen Diana Deere is Professor of Food and Resource Economics and Director for the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida, USA.

Manuel Morales is Executive Director of the ECOLEX Corporation, a nongovernmental organization located in Quito, Ecuador.

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